Saving Loki
by Loki and His Favorite Penguin
Summary: A teen witch/demigod is sent by Chiron on a secret mission to Germany to track down the source of suspected Norse god activity. She meets Loki, who "convinces" her to accompany him on the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier. Can she convince him to call off his attack on New York before it's too late?
1. Intrigued

_CR-AAACK!_

I sat bolt upright in my cot, jolted awake by the sound of thunder crashing outside. I swung my legs over the side of the cot and stood up. I grabbed my wand off the nightstand and walked to the tent flap. Peering out, I saw a fierce thunderstorm heading across the inky night sky towards my camp site. There wasn't supposed to be any rain here all week, so it had to be Zeus. Why was he here though?

I had gotten my first major quest for Camp Half-Blood this summer. It wasn't a regular quest either. It was just me, and nobody at camp knew about it except for Chiron, who had assigned it to me. There was unusual activity going on, and Chiron was fairly certain it had to do with the Norse gods. Since I am the only one at Camp Half-Blood to know about both the Roman and Egyptian camps, and I am a bit of a Norse mythology buff, Chiron felt I was the best one for this mission. I was currently camped out on a ledge of a cliff somewhere in the Black Forest near Stuttgart. I had found a lead that brought me to the city; but from what I knew, whatever Norse Immortal that was on earth wasn't making an appearance until tomorrow. I didn't have a lot of mortal money though, so I had brought my tent and camped out on this cliff for the night. So far all had been quiet — that is until now.

I rushed back into my tent, hurrying to pull on my hiking shoes, then collapsed my tent and stuffed it into my electric blue sling backpack. The storm had just reached me, the winds making it difficult to focus on where I wanted to apparate. I edged over to the wall of the cliff, where the winds were weaker. I was just about to disapparate when I saw a flash of red and silver streak across the sky and crash — no, _land?_ — onto another outcropping above of me.

 _What the heck?_

I looked up to the top of the cliff and saw something rise up. No, not something… someone. It appeared to be a man, blond, if I was not mistaken, and wearing armor and a cape. I blinked a few times, before looking back up. He was still there, and he seemed to have another person with him. They had to be either gods or monsters, to have landed like that and survived, but I couldn't think of any who dressed like that. I looked up to the sky and realized that the storm had stopped as soon as it had began, and the clouds had almost entirely vanished. Could one of them be Thor? I couldn't be sure from where I was. I looked up again when I heard them speaking. I was still scared out of my mind, but I knew I needed to climb up the cliff and find out exactly who these two were. I cast a disillusionment charm upon myself and scaled up the rock face. When I got to the ledge where the two stood, I crouched behind a boulder where I was in earshot of them and peaked around the side to see what was happening.

"...I remember a shadow," said one, lean and tall, with sallow skin and raven hair, and an intelligent, perhaps mischievous look in his eyes. I was intrigued with that one. "Living in the shade of your greatness. I remember you tossing me into an abyss; I who was, and should be, king!"

 _A prince? Maybe that's Thor. I thought he had red hair though._

"So you take the world I love as recompense for you imagined slights?" said the first, golden blond hair framing his face. He was the one I had seen land on the cliff, the one wearing a red cape and silver armor. "No. The earth is under my protection, Loki."

 _So his plan is world domination? Isn't that oh-so-original… Wait… Loki? Like, the Norse god of Mischief, Loki?_

I couldn't believe it. The stories I had read of Loki were always my favorite. He didn't look like the Loki I had read about, but he was a shapeshifter after all, so there was never one definite appearance to him in the different stories.

"And you're doing a _marvelous_ job at that," the raven-haired one, Loki, laughed. "The humans slaughter each other in droves while you idly fret. I mean to rule them, and why should I not?"

"You think yourself above them?"

"Well, yes." Loki seemed genuinely confused as to why he wouldn't be above humanity. Yep, definitely Loki.

"Then you missed the truth of ruling brother; the throne would suit you ill." This was apparently the wrong thing to say, since Loki smacked the blond one's broad chest before storming away, scowling.

 _Brother?_ It may have been the dead of night, but I could still see that they looked nothing like brothers. The blond one was insanely buff, as in buffer than Ares himself, and seemed stern but kindhearted; his brother, on the other hand, was lean and pale, with raven coloured hair that feathered out so that it looked like a sinister Christmas tree. He seemed like like he .

"I've seen worlds you never known about!" Loki shouted. "I have grown, _Odinson_ , in my exile. I've seen the true power of the Tesseract, and when I wield it — "

"Who showed you this power? Who controls the would-be king?!"

"I am a king!"

"Not here! You give up the Tesseract! You give up this poisonous dream!" Thundered the blond one, his large hand gripping the other's shoulders. He wore a scowl upon his face, but both his expression and his voice softened, laced with sorrow as he spoke the next sentence — "You come home."

Loki's face dropped for a moment, and he seemed confused, but slightly hopeful. He quickly regained his composure, however, his face splitting into a cold smile as he barked out a quiet laugh,

"I don't have it," his brother let go of him and held his hand out behind him, a war-hammer with an oddly short handle flying into it. He raised it threateningly above his head, as if to strike Loki, but the dark-haired one went on. "You need the cube to bring me home, but I've sent it off, I know not where."

"You listen well, brother. I —" However, we will never know what was undoubtedly profound words of wisdom, since he vanished right at that moment. Or rather, something crashed into him, hurtling him off the cliff.

"…I'm listening," said Loki, as if the blond one was simply standing there in silence. Oh yeah, now I could see that they were indeed brothers. Did that mean the blond one was Odin? From what I remember, they had adopted each other as brothers. But Loki had called him Odinson, I was pretty sure, which would make him a son of Odin. That would make him Thor or Balder. That didn't make sense, but I remember that he and Loki went on a lot of adventures together, so maybe they just called each other brother, instead of Uncle and Nephew. Thor was the god of thunder, which would explain the storm before they landed. And the hammer of his, that would be… Mjolnir, I think. I knew I had to have finally found what I was looking for.

I peeked over the ledge to see where Blondie had gone, and saw him standing on the ground below, speaking with another figure Where they had landed was the exact spot where my tent had been not five minutes prior. I leaned forward a bit to better hear what they were saying. It wasn't too difficult, since they were being rather loud.

"...Doth mother know you weareth her drapes?" said the new one who seemed to be wearing some kind of full body armour, sort of like a knight, only red and gold. Hmm… two Norse gods and a knight that was talking like he was in a Shakespearian play. What next, a time traveler?

"This is beyond you, metal man," said the blond god, scowling. "Loki will face Asgardian justice."

"He gives up the Cube, he's all yours. Until then, stay out of the way... tourist."

With that the god threw his hammer at the knight, who flew back with such force that he crashed through a tree behind him. He barely seemed fazed by it, getting right back up to go after the god.

"Geez," I muttered, not thinking. "Whatever that armour is made out of, I want it."

"Indeed, I have never seen a material of mortal craft that could withstand a blow from Thor's hammer," said a voice next to me. Startled, I looked up to see Loki sitting a few yards away from me, watching the battle that was now waging between the two below us. I thought he might have just been talking to himself, but I figured I should move to a safer spot, so I slowly rose, and was about to sneak off when he spoke again, this time there was no doubt as to whom he was speaking.

"That is quite an impressive illusion of invisibility you have upon yourself. Tell me, was it you who cast it?"

"Erm… Yes, yes I did," I said. He finally turned to look at me, and he seemed to be staring directly at me. "You can see me?"

"Only when you are in motion. Even then, you appear to be merely a bit of a ripple in the air. It's not really all that difficult if you simply observe. Are you a mortal?"

"I think so. I haven't ever died before, so I can't be too sure."

"And you are learned in illusionment? Or do you merely have powers of invisibility?"

"I wouldn't call myself an 'illusionist', but yeah, pretty much."

"I was not expecting to come across anyone with such abilities in this realm. Why don't you reveal yourself, so that we may converse more comfortably?"

"Well, I don't want to take the chance of those two seeing me." I said, nodding down at the two fighting. They were no longer there, however, and I looked a ways off to see sparks flying off the side of another cliffside about a hundred feet away, where I assumed they were now. "I mean, they can't see me from there, but they might come back soon."

"That is of no matter," he said, making an odd hand gesture in my direction. "There, now you are visible and audible to your and myself alone, and such is the same for your bag that you are carrying."

I looked down, realizing what he said was true, at least the part about being able to see myself again. He was the god of lies, so I wasn't entirely sure whether to believe him. "I'm going to trust you… for now," I said. "But if they come back and make any sign that they see me, I am leaving pronto."

"Fair enough," he raised his hands. "Now sit, and tell me what you are."

I sat on a small boulder, looking slightly down at him. "What do you mean, 'what I am'?" I crossed my arms. "I told you, I'm a human."

"You hold the ability to perform magical feats, yes?" He said slowly, like he was talking to a child. I didn't like it, but I nodded. "So you cannot be a simple creature like the rest of these mortals I've seen in this realm. So I ask you once more: What. Are. You? And do not think you can lie to me, I am the god of Lies, after all," he smirked.

"Fine," I answered after a moment. "I'm a witch," I wasn't going to tell him that I was a demigod, but what I said certainly wasn't a lie: I had graduated from Salem Academy of Magic a year ago.

His smirk grew into a grin, "Really? How can you stand the rest of these mundane mortals?"

"We can have our good points," I shrugged.

He gave me a doubtful look, but said nothing, so I decided to learn more about him. "I'm Alex, by the way. And you're Loki, right? God of Mischief and Lies, born of Jotunheim and friend of Odin and Thor, all that jazz."

His eyes widened in surprise for a brief moment. "That is partly true," he began slowly. "I am Loki and that is my title. I would not, however, consider myself a friend of Thor, and most _certainly_ not one of Odin. How is it that one who hails from Midgard knows that I am a son of a Jotun, though?"

"We have stories of the nine realms. Not many people know them anymore, and the ones that do think they're myths. I read them when I was younger."

"That may be, but that still fails to explain how you know of my parentage. I myself did not know of it until only a short while ago."

"But… aren't you and Odin adoptive brothers?"

" _What?_ Absolutely not! Thor and I are adoptive brothers. Odin took me from Jotunheim when I was an infant after the war between the Aesirs and the Jotuns."

"'Took you'? Were you adopted or stolen?"

He hesitated, pursing his lips, when a sudden explosion blasted below us. We scrambled away from the edge of the cliff, then looked back at the scene below. I slowly got to my feet, not believing what I was seeing.

"Oh my gods…" I breathed. "What happened?" Below there was a mile-wide radius of felled — no, _obliterated_ — trees, the Knight and Thor, and now some other guy in a tight blue outfit, standing a few hundred feet away from us, which was right in the middle of the where the blast came from.

"I believe that Thor's all mighty Mjolnir has finally met its match," said the god, rising to look over the scene.

I stood there, appalled. Who did those three think they were, causing such destruction?

"Come with me," said Loki suddenly. I jumped a bit, startled out of my anger.

"Excuse me?"

"Come with me," he said again. "I have a plan. I will allow those three to take me prisoner, and they will unwittingly take me nearer to where I need to go, as it is far from here and I know not the way. I can do this on my own, however, someone such as yourself may be useful to me, if only for better company than these dimwitted fools. Though I have a feeling you can be much more."

"Thanks… I, uh, think. But that sounds like a bad idea. I don't want them to know I exist, and I _definitely_ don't want them to know I'm a witch. I'm not even sure why I told you." I knew I could avoid getting caught (stealth is my specialty, after all), but Chiron had explicitly told me to only get information.

"But that would be of no matter. You shall be invisible and mute the entire time. No one will ever be aware of your presence."

I contemplated it for a moment. He was fascinating, being a god from yet another set of deities that wasn't my own. This would count as that getting information, I reasoned.

 _No. You will not go anywhere with this god. He wants world domination, you need to get back to camp so the heroes can put a stop to him._

"Of course," he went on, something in his voice putting me on alert. "The decision is yours, Alex. However, should you choose stay here, then I suppose you will be forever trapped as invisible and mute to all." He looked at me, a sly smirk upon his face as realization dawned on mine.

Oh heck no! I realized, too late, that I had no idea as to how to remove the spell he had cast on me. If he didn't take it off, then I could very well be stuck like this for quite a while. Oh, he was good. I knew I had no choice now but to go with him, but I wasn't about to let him know that I was scared. I was the child of Hermes, after all, and we were the masters of poker faces.

I stood up straighter and, smirking, looked him dead in the eyes, "When do we start?"


	2. Your Plan

After a brief, awkward-silence filled ride in a small drone-like aircraft that looked like something only a high-ranking, top-secret government agency would have, we came to a halt. We had apparently landed, the hatch at the back of the craft opening to reveal the inside of what looked like a landing area. As soon as the hatch was fully opened a small team of guards swarmed in to take Loki. I grabbed my backpack out from under the seat he was sitting on and slung it over my shoulders, hurrying to stand behind him just before the guards surrounded him. They led us down through a maze of brightly lit hallways, I doing my best to commit the route to memory. It wasn't the strongest power I had inherited from my father (though to be honest, his "powers" were more like skills), but I could usually remember enough landmarks to retrace most paths I had recently taken. We came to a halt outside of a large door at the end of a hall. As we waited for the lead guard to unlock it, I studied the area, memorizing as many details as I could of the plain space so that I would be able to apparate here later.

Beyond the door was a dimly lit room with a brightly lit glass and steel pod at its center. Two of the guards led us to the pod, gesturing for Loki to enter. He walked in and turned around, I slipped in right behind him, seeing him roll his eyes slightly as the glass panel slid back into place.

As soon as the guards left another man entered. He looked like Jules from Pulp Fiction, only without any hair, and he was wearing a black leather trench coat, military boots, and an eye patch instead of a suit and tie.

"Incase it's unclear," said the man, stepping forward towards a stand that looked like a control panel. "If you try to escape, you so much as scratch that glass…" He pressed a button on the panel, an aperture opening beneath the entire cell we were in. Loki and I both looked down, hearing the roar of a strong gale, and seeing a dark void. I wasn't sure what was down there, but I really didn't want to find out. "...it's 30,000 feet straight down in a steel trap," the man with the eyepatch went on. "You get how that works? Ant...boot." He gestured to Loki and then the panel as he said the last sentence.

"30,000 feet?" I asked. "Wait. Are we… we're in another aircraft, aren't we?" Loki nodded slightly in reply, then grinned at the man.

"It's an impressive cage," said the god, stepping closer to him. "Not built, I think, for me."

"Built for something a lot stronger than you."

"Oh, I've heard. The mindless beast, makes play he's still a man," he turned for a moment, looking up at something — a security camera in the cell that I had noticed since we — before turning back to continue addressing the man. "How _desperate_ are you, that you call on such lost creatures to defend you?"

"How desperate am I? You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control. You talk about peace and you kill 'cause it's fun. You have made me _very_ desperate. You might not be glad that you did."

"Oooh. It _burns_ you to have come so close," taunted Loki, leaning towards the glass. "To have the Tesseract, to have power — _unlimited_ power. And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share. And then to be reminded what real power is."

"Well, let me know if 'real power' wants a magazine or something," said eyepatch-man bluntly, before stalking out of the room.

"I would like a magazine, thank you." I stated as I rose from the seat on the bench that was attached to a side of the cell. Then something that Loki had said struck me.

"'A warm light for all mankind'," I quoted, tuning the phrase over to see what I could make of it. "Is that a reference to Iron Man?" I looked at Loki expectantly.

"Ah, most insightful, aren't you dear?" Loki asked from behind me. Wait, behind me? I turned to see a second god of mischief standing a few yards away from me, grinning. I turned back to see him still standing in front of me, staring at the door the guy with the eyepatch had walked out of a moment ago. I turned back to the Loki behind me, since the other was ignoring me.

"So, what, you're taking this... Tesseract, to Stark Tower? And then you'll unleash your 'unlimited power' upon New York and take over the world."

"Precisely."

"I see," I mused. "You have your men attack this base to divide up your enemies, then defeat them publicly in the most populated city in one of the most powerful countries in the world. I must say, impressive."

"Why, thank —"

"But it won't work."

His smile fell to a bemused look, "And why not? I have an army. An army against a mere handful of pathetic 'heroes'. How can I lose?"

"I never said you wouldn't win this battle. But you're not exactly the first to have tried this whole world domination thing."

"You forget that I am a god, not some primitive midgardian."

"Humans aren't the only ones who have tried. Beings far older and more powerful than any god have tried, and failed, several times before."

I could sense he was concerned, nervous even, about that, but he hid it behind a calm mask. He said nothing, so I went on,

"And, say you do become King of the Earth, I doubt that your reign will last long. Not to you, anyway."

He leaned back slightly, crossing his long arms. "And why is that?"

"Well, it's simple, really," I shrugged. "Humans, especially Americans, despise being controlled and being under the rule of a tyrant. They'll fear you for a while, maybe, but they will eventually rebel. And when they do, the 'Mighty King' will fall, mark my words."

"You're bluffing," he said, squinting slightly. He did not seem entirely confident that that was true, though.

"Am I?" I spread my hands. "I'll humor you for now though. You're interesting, and I think we can learn some things from each other."

With that, I rose, "I'm going out to do some investigating. I'll be back in about an hour." Without waiting for a response, I apparated out into the hall we had been in earlier. I leaned against a wall, waiting for my heart and thoughts to stop racing. I couldn't believe I had just talked that way to a god! I rarely feared any god, and had certainly had no fondness for all but perhaps a couple, but I was always civil, and never so brazen. Sure I could be sassy, but nothing like what I had just been like. Never before had I ever been so grateful for having Hermes as my Olympian parent, as I sincerely doubt I would have been able to pull off a poker face good enough to trick the Trickster god into thinking I was calm otherwise. With a sigh I pushed myself off the wall and pulled my wand out of the pocket I had added to the strap of my backpack, and began walking down the hall.

I came upon a room that looked like a conference area. Checking to make sure no one was in it, I walked over to the large table in the center of it, seeing files strewn across it. I glanced around again, then flipped open the nearest file. " _Tony Stark. Alias: 'Iron Man'_ " read the first page, with a picture of one of the men from the forest, the man in the red and gold armor.

"What?" I whispered, looking over the page.

My heart started racing — I had just found the files of all the heroes on the ship! I leaned over the table, quickly scanning each page for information. I ended up sitting down in one of the chairs, pouring over each file extensively. There was one for each hero, along with one for Loki, and ones for a "Director Nick Fury," who apparently was the guy with the eye-patch from earlier, an "Agent Phil Coulson," and an "Agent Maria Hill." And ample information on the Tesseract, which was some sort of power source that could create wormholes, which was how Loki got to earth in the first place.

Finishing the final file, I leaned back in my seat, contemplating what I had just found.

Heroes. Actual, non-demigod heroes, right here in New York. And they were forming some sort of Justice League too, called "The Avengers". Did Chiron know about this? Did anyone at Camp Half-Blood or Olympus know about this?

I glanced at a clock on the wall and realized that I had been away from Loki's cell for over an hour.

"Crud, I gotta get back."

Pointing my wand at each file, I used a Gemino spell on them to make copies of each. They would fade eventually, but it would give me enough time to take pictures of each page when I was in a safer location. I glanced around once more, then stuffed the files into my bag and hurried back down the hall.

I was nearing the cell room, when I walked by an open door. I heard voices inside, so I peeked in. I saw Tony Stark, out of his suit, talking to a guy in a purple button down shirt and khakis that I remembered seeing on the way to the cell, who I now knew to be Dr. Bruce Banner.

The guy with the eyepatch — Director Fury — from earlier walked in, glaring at Stark with his one eye, "what are you doing, Mr. Stark?"

"Uh," Stark answered. "Kind of been wondering the same thing about you."

"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract!"

"We are!" interjected Dr. Banner. "The model's locked and we're sweeping for the signature now. When we get the hit, we'll have a signature within half a mile."

"Yeah, you'll get your cube back, no muss, no fuss," said Stark. He looked back at his monitor before continuing, "What _is_ Phase 2?"

"Phase 2 is S.H.I.E.L.D. uses the Cube to make weapons!" said a blond man who had just walked in, dropping a weapon on the table, and looking quite unhappy about it. Or maybe he was just unhappy about the skin-tight spangly spandex suit he was wearing. I recognized him as Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, from the files I had been reading. He turned to Stark, "sorry, the computer was moving a little slow for me."

"Rogers," said Mr. Eyepatch — sorry, Fury — calmly. "We gathered everything related to the Tesseract, this does not mean that we…"

"I'm sorry Nick," Stark turned the monitor around to show what appeared to be a schematic of a rocket. "What were you lying?"

"I was wrong, Director," said Rogers, anger and regret tainting his tone as he addressed Fury. "The world hasn't changed a bit."

I backed farther into the room as Thor and the redheaded woman, who had flown the small plane (quinjet, I think she had called it) that Loki and I had arrived in, walked into the room. Agent Romanoff, alias Black Widow (one of them, at least). There was a scepter on a table that caught my attention. I inched towards it to check it out, careful to avoid bumping into anything or anyone.

After a minute I stood in front of the table next to Dr. Banner. I looked down to see the golden scepter in the middle of it, a blue rock in it's head which seemed to pulse with energy. There was something alluring about it, but I could tell it was dangerous. I glanced around the room at the bickering group, which had grown to include the rest of the Avengers and Thor, and had escalated to a full-on argument.

I looked back at the scepter, then back at the group. There was something very off about the scene before me. I hadn't seen much of these people before now, but something still felt wrong. They weren't even arguing about anything in particular anymore, just throwing insults at each other. It reminded me of what happened when either Ares or Eris, Greek war gods, were around. Then I remembered what Loki's file had said. Apparently he had broken into a S.H.I.E.L.D. base to steal the Tesseract, and had brought this scepter with him. The page had said the weapon could be used to control someone's mind if the end was touched to their chest.

I turned to look back at Loki's scepter. _Of course._ When I was figuring out his plan he agreed that he wanted to break the heroes up first. That certainly looked like that's what was happening now. Now that I thought about it, the scepter felt like it was tugging at my mind as well, trying to play on my weaknesses and insecurities. It wasn't in contact with anyone in the room, but perhaps it still could have an effect on people nearby. I had to get this thing away from the heroes before they killed each other. I walked around the front of the table until I was next to the doctor, and right in front of the weapon. I took one more glance around the room to see all eyes were on Dr. Banner, who was looking red in the face, his fists clenched tight. Nobody would notice what I was about to do, but I had to act quickly before someone lost control. Turning back, I reached my free hand out and wrapped my fingers around the cool, smooth handle. I deftly snatched it off the stand and tucked it away into my backpack.

"You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff?" asked Dr. Banner, turning to the agent as he reached back to where the scepter was. I froze. "You wanna know how I stay calm?"

"Dr. Banner — where is the scepter?" exclaimed Fury. Dr. Banner and the rest of them looked down to where the scepter should have been. Darn it. Abandoning caution, I bolted out of the room and sprinted back down the hall. From behind me came the sounds of an explosion, then yelling and running.

 _Oh gods. Nononono. Please don't let anyone be dead. Please._

As I ran the floor beneath me lurched, throwing me into the wall. I steadied myself, realising the whole aircraft must have just moved because of the explosion. I twisted, apparating into the cell with my wand at the ready.

"Loki!" I called, stalking over to him. "Is this part of your 'brilliant plan'? Bring the ship down?!"

"You've returned," he said coolly, looking up at me from his seat on the bench. "Excellent. I thought I might have to leave you here."

"Answer my question, Loki."

"And why is it of concern to you? Simply do as I say and I shall personally assure no harm will come to you."

"It's not me that I'm worried about," I shook my head. "I can get myself out of this. But all of these people… Loki, if the ship goes down, they're all dead."

"Why do you care for these pathetic creatures? What have they ever done for you?"

"That isn't the point. But I didn't sign up to kill innocent people. And I thought you want world peace. How is killing dozens of people a good way to start?"

The edge of his mouth quirked, and he looked like he might answer, when I noticed something in the glass behind him. His reflection. Alarms went off in my head, and I apparated to the far side of the cell. I swiftly turned around to see Loki standing next to me, his clone still sitting on the bench. He turned to face me, the look of surprise on his face turning into a cold, slightly amused grin.

"Well done," he said. "Even Thor could never detect my illusions, and I used them on him more than anyone."

"What the heck was that about?"

"A test."

The door to the cell opened behind me then. I turned briefly to see one of the agents from the helicarrier at the control panel. The real Loki walked past me out of the cell, signaling that I should follow. After a moment's hesitation I complied, walking with him a few yards past the door. His clone rose from the bench and stood in the doorway of the cell. The real Loki turned and stared at me, any trace of a smile now gone. He seemed conflicted for a moment, before the clone spoke up.

"Inform the others to cease the destruction of this flying fortress." I looked back at the clone to see that it was speaking to the agent, who nodded and left. I looked back at Loki, who still looked conflicted.

"Does that satisfy you?" he asked me. I hesitated for a moment, then nodded tersely. "Good. Now, I believe you have my scepter. Give it to me."

I was about to respond, when a shout from behind me startled us both. I drew my wand before I had even turned around.

"LOKI, NO!" We both turned to see Thor taking a running leap at the clone that was still standing in the cell's doorway. Apparently, the clone was just a projection, because the blond god sailed right through it, belly flopping onto the floor beyond. He sprang back up and whipped around to see the door sliding shut, trapping him in the clear prison.

"Will you ever _not_ fall for that?" Asked the Loki next to me, his tone a mix of disbelief and bemusement.

Thor slammed his hammer into the door of the cell, which to my surprise only cracked the glass, but does cause the room to shake. By the looks on Thor and Loki's faces, they're just as surprised.

Grinning, Loki walked over to the control panel, "The humans think us immortal. Should we test that?"

"Loki wait—"

Before I can say any more, the agent who let us out of the cell falls to the ground, unconscious. We all look up to see a middle aged man in a suit with thinning hair and either the biggest gun or the smallest cannon I have ever seen, and he was pointing it straight at Loki.

"You like this?" he asked, nodding at his gun-cannon. "We started working on the prototype after you sent the destroyer. Even I don't know what it does. Do you wanna find out?"


	3. Escape

I looked at the man, who I recognized as Agent Coulson, his weapon trained on Loki. I had to stop him. With only a split second to react, I raised my wand and cast the first spell that came to mind. It wasn't the best idea.

"Stupefy!"

The Helicarrier rocked at that moment, throwing me off balance. My aim shifted and the stunning spell shot past the agent. And hit Loki square in the face. The real Loki, I realized. He had been standing behind the man, hidden, until my spell knocked him out cold. I watched as he fell past the agent onto the floor in front of me, a dagger falling out of his hand.

"LOKI!" Came Thor's booming yell, as he pounded his fist on the glass.

"Ma'am," said Agent Coulson. "I'll have to ask you to lower your weapon."

 _Ma'am?_ There wasn't anyone else in the room besides the two gods and — oh no. I looked up to see him staring directly at me.

"Ma'am. I won't ask again."

I slowly lowered my wand, stashing it in one of the pockets in my cargo pants. I half-glanced at the opening beneath the cell, wind whistling past it.

"You can see me?" I asked.

"Yes, I can," he said. "And I'd like to know how you got here."

Apparently Loki's magic requires him to be awake for it to work. And I had just knocked him out with a stunning spell. Awesome.

"Uh, funny story," I said with a nervous laugh.

"Go on," he said, curling his finger around the trigger.

"Wait, wait, wait!" I held up my hands. I recalled something I had read about a while back and I prayed that it would work. "I come bearing a message for Agent Phil Coulson."

I held my breath, nothing seeming to happen. Then he lowered his weapon, keeping his finger on the trigger. It wasn't the effect I had hoped for, but it was something.

A few years ago I had found a book of old lore about Hermes. Since he is the god of messengers, his children sometimes had the power to temporarily pacify enemies when giving them a message.

"What is the message?"

I sat on my haunches and sat a still-unconscious Loki up, wrapping my left arm tightly around his middle. "The message is that…" I struggled to stand, but the god was too heavy, so I just scooted back away from the Agent. "That you really need better security."

"What?" he snapped, shaking his head and raising his gun. "Is that it?"

 _Crap crap crap_

I scrambled back as fast as I could, pulling Loki with me to the opening a few inches behind us. My free arm windmilling, we fell out of the Helicarrier. I saw a flash of light as I was falling out of the opening into a free fall towards earth.


	4. Secrets

I opened my eyes to see bright blue sky above me. It would have been nice, I thought, if someone hadn't been screaming in my ears.

I looked around, seeing more sky all around me and ground far, far below me, remembering with a jolt where I was, realizing that it was the wind who was screaming in my ears. I figured I must have passed out after falling out of the Helicarrier, vaguely thinking about how there wasn't much oxygen at 30,000 feet in the air. I looked to my side to see Loki freefalling next to me, still unconscious. I turned myself over to face the fast approaching earth, and tucked the snoozing god of mischief back under my arm.

 _Okay, don't panic, don't panic, don't panic. How do you survive a fall from this height?_

I tried to recall what little I knew about falling out of the sky and living to talk about it, but the only thing that came to mind was that it was best to be holding onto a piece of plane wreckage to shield you. I was pretty sure Loki didn't count.

 _Come on — Think!_

By now the ground, a field, by the looks of it, was only thirty seconds away at best, and panic was taking over when the wise words of Ron Weasley came to me: " _Are you a witch or not?!_ " I honestly could have slapped myself, if I wasn't about to die.

I fished my wand out of my pocket, closed my eyes, and focused on the non-verbal spell I had to cast.

 _Aresto Momentum!_

With a jerk we stopped. I opened one eye to see wildflowers and thistles a foot below me before we dropped to the ground. Gasping for breath, I released Loki and rolled over, shrugging off my pack and staring unbelievingly at the sky above me. I almost would have laughed, if my brain hadn't chosen that exact next moment to let me know that my left leg was in agonizing pain.

I looked down at it, not understanding what I was looking at at first. I thought the bottom half of my pant leg was bright red. I poked it tentatively before I realized that that part of my pant leg was gone and what I was touching what was my calf, half of which now looked like it had been dipped in a deep fryer.

I reeled back, trying to scramble away from the sight of my scorched leg. Unfortunately, the pain followed me, causing me to nearly black out again.

"Okay, Alex… okay," I said between ragged breaths. "Get a grip, woman."

I sat still for a minute, calming myself down. After the pain had eased slightly, I tugged my backpack over towards me and rummaged through it until I found what I needed: a small bottle of essence of dittany, my thermos full of nectar, a bag of ambrosia, and some bandage wraps.

I carefully dabbed small amounts of the dittany on the burned part of my calf, wincing as I went. A potion for burns would have healed me faster, but it was working well enough, new skin already stretching over the wound as I wrapped it in the bandage. Luckily I had the ambrosia and nectar to help speed things along. They are the food and drink of the Greek gods, basically poison to humans, but demigods can handle small amounts when we need to gain our strength back. I scarfed down a couple of squares of ambrosia and a cup of the nectar, licking my lips. I used a repairing spell on my pants and boot before and shakily getting to my feet. I knew I should have been resting, but I was getting anxious sitting in one place for so long.

I put up protection and concealment charms around where we had landed, then scanned the surrounding area to see if I could get my bearings. It was a field, with nothing but ocean on one side and flowers, weeds, and a few trees on the other as far as I could see.

"Well this's just great Alex," I said to myself as I started pacing. " 'Keep me company,' he says. 'It'll be fine,' he says. Look at the mess you're in now! I WASN'T SUPPOSED TO BE SEEN! THAT WAS THE DEAL! And I practically got half my freaking leg blown off from that — that Agent and his stupid gun!"

"Okay, just — just think," I continued, taking a few breaths. "Just figure out where you are, and see where you can go from here."

I looked around again, as if the scenery might have changed during my rant. I sighed, not knowing which direction would lead me to anything useful, or how far I would have to go to get there. Then my gaze landed on my backpack. Of course! I limped back over to it, digging around in one of the smaller front compartments whose interior I hadn't magically enlarged. My mom had given me a smart phone for my birthday last year, which I had modified, with the help of a couple of Athena and Hephaestus kids. It looked and functioned just like a regular smartphone, but it had special apps and widgets for my demigod needs, plus it's signal was untraceable by both the government and monsters, and my magic didn't disrupt it. Booyeah.

I grabbed it out of its pocket and tapped on the map. According to the app, I was in a field in… New York.

 _Wait, New York? Hadn't we been on the helicarrier for only a couple of hours? How fast did that thing go?_

I shook my head, I didn't have time to think about it now. I looked back at the map. It was a start, but I was still too far to apparate anywhere that I knew. I would just have to wake Loki up and figure out what the plan was.

I walked over to his still unconscious form, and nudged him with the tip of my boot.

"Hey," I called. "You awake?"

No answer. He was a god, right? I couldn't have possibly stunned him hard enough to knock him out like this… I think. Maybe he was trying to trick me.

"Uh," I said, sitting on my heels and roughly shaking his shoulder. "C'mon, you need to get a move on Loki."

Still nothing. I checked his breathing and pulse, both of which were there, thank gods, but they both seemed rapid and sporadic. Putting the back of my hand to his forehead, I felt that he was burning up. Okay, this couldn't be good. I hadn't ever found much lore on Frost Giants, but I figured that that was not normal for them.

"Oh geez, wake up man," I said, slapping him a few times, then shaking him again.

"That's not going to wake him up, Alex," called a voice from behind me. I shot up, whipping around to face whoever was there, wand drawn and leg throbbing. In front of me was the last person I expected to see.

" _Dad?_ " I said, gaping at the middle-aged man standing in front of me. "What are you doing here?"

"What?" said Hermes. "A father can't take some time off from his godly duties to see his daughter and her… Jotun pet," he glanced behind me at Loki. "While she's on a quest?"

"This — this isn't what you think it is."

"So you _didn't_ completely ignore your instructions to only gather information on what the Norse gods are doing on Earth and bring it back to Chiron?" he asked, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow.

"Oh... Well, in that case, it's exactly what you think it is."

He gave me a stern look for a moment before his face split into a grin. "Awesome."

"What?" I frowned.

"I thought you might let your curiosity get the better of you, which is one of the reasons why I requested that you be the one who took on this mission. Though of course that isn't the reason I told Chiron."

"Woah, woah, woah. Hold the phone. _You_ set me up to do this? Why? And how do you know about any of it? I thought the different sets of deities aren't supposed to know about each other."

"They don't. But I am the Messenger god, after all. I know about a lot more than anyone else does. And I wanted you to do this because someone needed to stop the Nord before he made a mess of everything."

"I thought that's what that… 'Avengers' team was doing?" I said, crossing my arms.

"Oh, I'm sure they are doing an amazing job with that. Seeing as how they lost their prisoner twice now, if I'm not mistaken."

"Yeah, well, I wasn't even supposed to take it this far. This is hero level kind of stuff, not messenger level."

"Please, heroes are overrated anyway, if you ask me. And you're not just a messenger. You're a witch and you're incredibly skilled in stealth. You're resourceful. And people trust you, which isn't exactly common for my children," he said, a lopsided grin on his face.

He suddenly looked over his shoulder, his expression serious when he looked back at me. "I can't stay much longer. Do you know about the Tesseract?"

"Yeah, the power source Loki stole. What about it?"

"It's going to open a portal in two hours that will unleash an alien army onto New York City. Once that happens, most of Camp Half-Blood will be there in ten minutes. I don't think you need reminding what happens when your cousins are in a battle near civilization." He gave me a pointed look.

I looked away, thinking about the implications of what Hermes had just told me. My demigod cousins would probably do more damage to the city than the aliens (also: _aliens! sick!_ ). Not to mention such a large group of them would attract monsters, causing even more problems, and on top of that they would be using their powers in broad daylight around thousands of mortal people with camera phones. There would be almost no way of hiding ourselves after that.

"So, are you in?" asked Hermes, breaking me out of my thoughts.

"Well… what about Loki?" I said, gesturing behind me. "I don't know what's wrong with him, and I can't drag him around with me."

"He'll be fine soon enough. But there is something you need to know about him. His scepter, it can be used to let you control someone else's mind."

"I saw some of it's effects earlier."

"It's not Loki's, though."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't have time to tell you the whole story, but from what I heard, about a year ago Loki fell off of Asgard and into a wormhole."

"He fell off an entire _realm_?"

"That's what I said," he said. "Honestly, aren't you listening?"

I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes. "Obviously. Go on."

He went on to tell me that Loki was eventually captured and tortured by someone who wants to take over the universe.

"Who?" I asked, horrified.

"That I can't tell you."

"Can't, or won't?"

"Both. It's too dangerous for you to know who he is right now. The only reason Loki here got away from him was because he came up with the idea to retrieve the Tesseract from Earth in exchange for control over the planet. It was a rouse, of course," he looked behind him again.

"What?" I asked. "What do you mean?"

"I have to go," he said hurriedly, turning back to me. "He might explain the rest to you, but I doubt it right now. Just get to New York. The Tesseract is there. "

"Wait! Where? What about Loki? And how do I stop the army?"

"I'm sorry, I wish I could tell you more, but I can't be here. Loki should know how to stop them. And here," he tossed me a leather pouch. "Mix that with some water and make him drink it. It will help the scepter's effects wear off faster."

I looked down at the bag in my hands. "What—" I looked up to see that I was alone once again. With a sigh I looked back at the bag, opening it to see what looked like herbs inside. I turned to look at Loki, who had started to stir. I sat cross legged beside him, setting the pouch on my knee and grabbing the lid to my thermos.

"Aguamenti," I said, pointing my wand at the thermos cup, filling it with water. I opened the bag fully and dumped its contents into the cup, swirling it a bit to mix it. It frothed a little, then settled. Great, that's always a good sign.

 _You'd better have given me the right thing, dad._

I stretched my injured leg out and pulled Loki's head and shoulders onto my lap, lifting his head up and carefully tilting the solution past his lips. Once it was drained I reached over and screwed the lid back onto my thermos, stuffing it into my backpack.

"Alex?" said a hoarse voice. I looked over to see the Norse god staring at me, his emerald eyes narrowed against the morning sunlight. "What… what happened?"


	5. My Plan

I looked down at the green-eyed god and breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, something was going right today.

"How do you feel?" I asked.

"Marvelous," he groaned, sitting up and looking around. "What has happened? Where are we?"

"Short story? I accidently knocked you out and then I pulled us out of the Helicarrier and we landed in this field."

He turned to me, brow raised. "Do tell how you managed to survive a fall such as that."

"Magic, duh," I rolled my eyes.

"Of course. How silly of me."

"C'mon, we can't sit here all day. We need to get out of here before those Avengers find us. Can you walk?"

"I believe so," he rose and strode in a circle around me. "Indeed I can."

He turned and offered me his hand. I eyed it warily, but this time I accepted. I winced when I stood, a hot stab of pain shooting up my half-healed calf. I thought I saw Loki look at me out of the corner of my eye, but he said nothing. I brushed myself off and grabbed my backpack, plucking thistles off of it.

"We need to get to the Tesseract before the Avengers do. We're not too far from where you said it is and I know a safe place nearby it where we can hide out until we figure out what our next move is. But I'll only help you on one condition."

"What makes you so assured you have any say in what we do, or that I even plan on bringing you with me, mortal?"

"Because, Loki, dear, " I said, turning to face him with a grin etched onto my face. " _You_ forced me into coming with you in the first place. _You_ are the reason that I almost died twice before breakfast. And _you_ don't have the scepter."

"Fair enough," he said, raising his hands in mock surrender. "What is your condition?"

"Tell me why you're here trying to conquer Earth and how you got here. I can't help you if I don't know the truth."

He studied me for a moment before letting out a sigh, his usual arrogant expression softening into a weary one.

"Truth does not tend to be in my nature. Neither does trust, as of late. Nevertheless, I feel that I can place some of my trust in you, though I cannot say precisely why. I cannot reveal everything to you, but I give you my word that what I do tell you shall be utter truth."

"Thank you, that's all I'm asking for. And I can't guarantee that I'll be able to help you, but I can promise you that I will do whatever I can. Deal?" I held my hand out to him.

"Deal," he shook my hand, a faint but genuine smile crossing his lips.

"Good. Now let's get a move on. You can tell me on the way."

"Geez, that's insane. Completely insane," I shook my head. We had been walking for about a half an hour, in which Loki had explained most of what had happened to him to bring him to Earth. He didn't tell me much more than Hermes did regarding being imprisoned and tortured by the dude who wants to take over the universe, but he did tell me about his family on Asgard. Or who he had thought was his family until a little over a year ago. He apparently had had a little bit of an identity crisis when he found out and tried to destroy his home realm of Jotunheim to prove to Odin that he was a worthy son.

"I shall understand if you would rather not continue with this," he muttered. "I suppose I am not surprised you think me mad."

"What?" I looked up at him, snapping out of my thoughts. "No no no. I didn't mean you. I mean, yeah you might have overreacted a little, but I've seen my family do a lot worse over a lot less. Besides, I don't want an alien invasion in New York City. That's so clichéd. And I made a promise to help you if you told me the truth. And not even the god of lies could make that story up."

Loki studied me for a moment, "I cannot fathom you, mortal. It's maddening, but I like it."

"Don't get all warm 'n' fuzzy on me now, man," I said, letting out a short laugh. "So did you never plan to win here?"

"No. I thought if I could eliminate myself from the playing board — after putting on a good show, of course — I would be free of blame for not conquering Midgard, and make my escape from … _his_ clutches," he ended with a small shudder. The 'he' Loki referenced was whoever Hermes had told me about, but Loki refused to say what his name was either.

"You mean you were going to let yourself be killed?"

"Oh no. Just unable to lead the army. Preferably hit hard enough by one of the 'heroes' to escape the telepathic connection I had with my captor, but it seems you have beat them to it, my dear," he grinned, glancing at me.

"Any time, Loki. Any time," I looked up to see that we had finally come to the empty road I was looking for. I checked the map on my phone and pointed to our left. "We need to go that way."

"For what length?"

"Uh, fifty miles. A little over."

"Are we to walk? Or perhaps you have a pair of steeds in that bag of yours."

"Yeah, well, even if I did, I think it'd be best for you to stay away from horses until we're done with our mission," I said. He looked like he was about to retort, so I hurried on, "I have a plan, don't worry. I just hope it works this far from the city."

"Oh yes, that seems to be no reason for worry."

Ignoring him, I stepped out onto the shoulder of the road and lifted my hand, praying that this worked.

The next instant there was a cloud of dirt and the sound of sliding gravel as a car appeared in front of us, its sudden stop spinning up dust onto my already mud-crusted, weed-tangled cargo pants and hiking boots. I stumbled back from the car as something yanked my backpack. I turned my head to see Loki holding onto my pack, to my surprise.

"What _is_ that contraption?" He asked, staring tensely at the car. The dust had mostly settled, revealing the car that I had been signaling for: a checker taxi. It was the Knight Bus of New York, if you will.

"That, my friend, is our ride," I said, attempting to move towards it, only to find that Loki still had a firm grasp — nay, death grip — on my backpack. "Uh, do you mind letting me go please? We're kind of on a tight schedule here."

"What?" He looked down at his hand. "Oh," he quickly let go, mumbling something as he turned his attention back to the taxi. Choosing to ignore his odd behavior for the time being, I hurried into the cab, buckling up and holding my backpack on my lap.

"Tell your boyfriend to hurry it up will ya?" said the driver, Vanessa. I had gotten rides from her a few times before when I was in Manhattan on my own. She was in her early 20s, but she liked to talk with a 50's New York accent when she was driving people around in her cab. I'm not sure why she liked the 50's so much, since she looked like she stepped off the cover of a 90's all-girl punk rock band album.

"He's not my boyfriend, Vanessa," I replied, motioning to Loki to hurry up. He cautiously walked to the cab and I leaned over and opened the door for him.

"Alex! Hey!" she said, looking at me in the rearview mirror and instantly dropping the accent. "I'm sorry. I didn't recognize you in that getup you got on. You going hiking or something?"

"Just got back from hiking, actually. Found this character along the way and decided to bring him with me." Loki gave me a sideways glance and a soft snort, but stayed silent.

"Just hope he isn't a no-maj," she said, turning her gaze to the god sitting next to me. "Might give him a bit of a scare. Heh."

"No, he isn't. He isn't from around here though," I replied before turning to Loki. "Buckle up. This thing goes fast."

"This _thing_ has a name, you know," Vanessa said. "It's Ruth."

"Buckle up?" Loki furrowed his brows. I reached past him, grabbing his seat belt and pulling it across his chest to lock into its clasp.

"Buckle up," I repeated with a small smile, turning back to Vanessa. "Have Ruth take us to Grand Central Terminal, please."

"Sure thing, doll," she said, flooring the accelerator.

"Thanks for the ride!" I called to Vanessa as Loki and I got out on the curb in front of the terminal. She gave a couple of quick honks and sped off. I turned to Loki, a look of dazed horror on his face.

"You okay there, Loki?" I said trying to suppress a grin.

"That was far worse than the Tesseract," he muttered, still staring off into the distance.

"Okay there, pull it together," I started walking towards the train station. He held onto my backpack again as I steered him through the heavy stream of pedestrians on the sidewalk. I glanced up at the statue of my father atop the building, saying a silent prayer before pulling Loki into the terminal with me.

"Why are we here?" He asked, looking around as I sat us down at a table.

"It's noisy and crowded, so we're less likely to be noticed, and it's right next door to the Stark Tower. Plus I like trains," I explained, glancing around before turning my attention back to Loki. "Although you do stand out in those clothes."

Without saying a word, a green light enveloped him for brief moment. When it passed his leather-and-metal outfit had been transformed into an expensive looking suit with a green and gold cashmere scarf. "Do you deem this suitable?"

I nodded, eyeing his new clothes. "I've never seen wandless magic like that before. It's pretty awesome."

"Thank you. I admit, I have never witnessed magic performed _with_ a wand before. It's quite intriguing."

"Oh stop it you. You're making me blush," I said, to which he chuckled. "Okay, okay. Time to get serious. We have barely thirty minutes before they show up. What's our plan?"

"The Tesseract will have a powerful protective barrier around it. An energy field. Nothing Midgardian can penetrate it."

"Fantastic," I deadpanned. "Does the thing have an off switch?"

"No. However, I said nothing _Midgardian_ can pierce it. I recall the doctor enabling the scepter to disarm the barrier by touching it to the Tesseract. I allowed him to believe that I knew nothing of it, hoping I would be able to do it myself if I did manage to conquer the heroes."

"Awesome, so we just have to get into the Stark Tower and deactivate it."

"You make it sound so simplistic."

"Ha. I wish. But it wouldn't be nearly as much fun if it was," I grinned.

"No, I suppose not," he returned the grin. "So how _are_ we to accomplish this task?"

I thought for a moment, fiddling with the zipper on one of the pockets of my pants. "Well, I know I want you to disable the Tesseract."

"What makes you so certain I will?"

"You will."

"Is that a belief or a threat?"

"I'll let you decide," I said before leaning over the table towards him. "And as for a plan, I have an idea…"


	6. Heroes

I felt my phone buzz against my leg from inside its pocket on my pants. I stopped crawling through the air duct I was in in the Stark Tower, leaning awkwardly on my elbow in the cramped space so I could pull my phone out and look at the caller ID.

Chiron. This couldn't be good.

"Hi, Chiron," I said, feigning calmness.

"Don't 'hi' me, Alex," came an agitated reply. "I haven't heard from you since yesterday. What's going on?"

"Didn't you get my email?" After I had gotten into the Stark Tower I sent Chiron pictures of the files I had found on the Avengers, along with some of what I had learned about Loki.

"Yes, and you said in it that you got those files from their ship. Alex, what were you doing on that ship?"

"I was getting information on what was going on." I said. "Just like you told me to."

"Did I also ask you to put yourself directly and deliberately in danger?"

"I can take care of myself, you know. And it turns out Loki's not the problem here. Neither is Thor."

"Yes, I saw that in your email too. But Alex, he is the god of _lies_. You cannot trust him."

"Are you forgetting that I'm one of Hermes's kids? Besides, I've got his Glowstick of Destiny, so he can't mind control anybody. And the Tesseract is going to unleash an alien army on the city soon, so we need to stop it."

"I know, that's why I'm getting a team together to go stop it. Get out of there now and get back to camp."

"What? No! I mean 'we', as in 'me and Loki'," I said. "I've come this far and there is no way I'm giving up on my quest now! I don't want any other demigods involved with this. I've got a way to stop the portal from opening. I can do this, Chiron."

There was a pause on his end of the line. "Alright, I won't send anyone out. But I'm going to get a group together anyway, just incase something goes wrong."

"Fine. I'll see you at dinner," I hung up and tucked my phone back into my pocket, continuing to crawl.

A few minutes later I finally came to a stop in front of the grate that I had spent the last ten minutes crawling through two floors of freezing air ducts to find. The one that opened into the 81st floor. I peered out between the slats, not seeing anyone. I pushed on the grate, but—not surprisingly—it held fast, so I pulled my wand from its pocket and aimed it at the grate.

 _Partis Temporus!_

The slats parted with a groan, leaving a gap just wide enough for me to slip through. I dropped to cement floor, tumbling forward as pain shot up my calf for the second time today. I curled into a ball, gritting my teeth as the pain subsided. I took a few breaths and hauled myself back up. I picked my wand off the floor and looked around the room to make sure no one was there. There wasn't anything—or anyone—on the open-layout floor except a small bar and several shelves of expensive looking alcohol at one end. I turned to a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows, seeing what I had snuck through nearly the entire tower to find.

"There you are, you fifth-dimensional pain in the neck," I stepped gingerly toward the glass, my leg still sore. Gazing out at the Tesseract, as blue as my backpack, that was sitting on the platform outside the window. I looked around, seeing a doorway that led out to the cube to my right.

"Perfect."

I dug my phone back out of its pocket, dialing the number of the disposable phone I had bought Loki. He picked up on the first ring.

"How are you doing?" he asked.

"Eh, I've been better," I stretched my leg. "Can't complain though, I guess. You?"

"I was speaking of how the plan is coming along," he sounded equally annoyed and bemused. "You have been up there for some time and I had yet to hear from you."

"Loki, if I didn't know you, I'd think you were worried about me," I said.

"Alex, the only feeling I have for you is that of impatience."

"Mhm. Well, your godliness, if you really want to know, I first had to wait for someone to get on the elevator in the lobby. Then I had to wait twenty-four floors and sixteen stops before the elevator was empty so I could press the button for the 81st floor to get to the Tesseract. But, wouldn't you know it, that elevator only goes to the _79th_ floor, and the elevator that goes any higher needs special access codes. So there I was, crawling my way through two stories of air ducts to get here. So like I said, can't complain."

There was a momentary pause. "You are invisible, why did you not simply press the button for the 79th floor while the elevator was still occupied?"

"Because, genius, the buttons make noise and light up when they're pressed, and I think some people might have noticed if the top button dinged and lit up when no one was near it,"

"I see. So you have made your way to the correct floor?"

"Yes," I said. "What's going on on your end?"

"Oddly, nothing, as far as I can tell. I do not see the heroes' flying fortress anywhere." I assumed he meant the Helicarrier. "Though that does not necessarily mean they are not here."

"So it's probably a trap, then," I said from behind the god, having apperated back to where he was keeping watch outside of the Yale Club Library across the street from the Stark Tower. "Good gods, are you wearing _more_ clothes?" I eyed his outfit, which he had reverted to the one he was wearing when I met him, only now it had a few more pieces of golden metal armour, an emerald green cape, and a golden helmet with huge, goat-like horns on the top of it. "Dude, it's summer, how are you not dead in all that?"

"I've suffered through more heat than this."

"If you say so… I'm not big on capes, but the helmet's kinda cool."

"Did you not just say it looked hot?"

"No, no," I laughed. "It means that I like it."

"Ah, I see. Thank you, I suppose," he looked up at the Stark Tower.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." I slung my backpack off, digging around in the main compartment until my hand bumped into the cool metal of the staff. I glanced around at the people walking past us on the sidewalk. I knew they couldn't see us, thanks to the disillusionment charm Loki had placed on the both of us, but relying on someone else's magic always made me nervous. I pulled the scepter out of my bag.

"You remember the rules?" I pulled the scepter away from Loki as he reached out to grab it.

"I shall only use the scepter to disarm the Tesseract, I shall not begin to disarm the Tesseract before you give me the proper signal, and I shall not be leaving without you."

"Good," I handed him the scepter. He once again grabbed ahold of my backpack and I turned, apparating us back up to the 81st floor of the Stark Tower.

"There." I pointed to the Tesseract. "We have seventeen minutes. Stick to the plan."

He gave me a mock salute and went out the door to stand by the Tesseract.

" _Colloportus_." I pointed my wand at the door, locking it. I glanced at where my reflection should have been in the window, making sure Loki's disillusionment charm was still working.

The elevator dinged behind us. I moved over to the side of the bar just before the elevator doors slid open, two people stepping out of it.

"Is that it out there?" said Agent Natasha Romanoff.

"That would be it," came the reply. It was a man, about the same age as the redhead, with short sandy blond hair and a wary look about him. I didn't recognize him from the Helicarrier, but he looked familiar. Then I realized it was Agent Clint Barton, whom Loki had had under the control of the scepter.

"You sure you're alright?" she asked.

"I will be once we get this thing deactivated. But Selvig said we need the scepter to shut it down, and as far as we know that kid still has it."

"Coulson said she knocked Loki out before the two escaped," said Agent Romanoff, looking around the room. "That's some kid."

"And he said her eyes were brown, not blue, so Loki wasn't controlling her," The man added.

As I watched I saw Tony Stark – back in his Iron Man armor – and Thor land on the platform opposite the one Loki was on now.

 _Perfect._ A grin split across my face as I crept around the bar to stand closer to the four.

"What's the news?" Stark asked, his face guard rising.

"We found the Cube, but no sign of Loki, that girl, or the scepter," replied Agent Romanoff.

"Has Banner showed?"

"No," said Agent Barton. I edged behind Thor.

"Perhaps I could disarm the Tesseract," said the god, lifting his hammer. I froze.

"Yeah, let's not, big fella," said Stark, patting Thor's shoulder. Relieved, I crouched down, gently grasping the hem of his scarlet cape and holding it to the floor I cast a sticking charm. I gave the cape a tug. It held fast. I stood stiffly and moved over to Agent Barton.

"We only have a few minutes before the portal opens," the archer said. "What's the plan if you're wrong about Loki showing up? What if he's still unconscious? Or what if that girl took off with the scepter?"

"He'll show up. This is his party, after all."

"How did she manage to knock him out?" Agent Barton asked as I snatched his arrows, stuffing them in my bag and moving on to Agent Romanoff before he had even finished talking. "You two are way stronger than the rest of us. Cap could barely take him down."

"As far as I am aware, Loki and I are the only ones on Midgard who are not from this realm."

"So if she's human, and she wasn't being possessed, then who is she?" said Agent Romanoff as I eased one of her guns from its holster, carefully replacing it with a water pistol from my bag. I shifted to her other side and got her other gun. She shifted her weight onto that foot and I recoiled. "What does she want?" She continued. I relaxed, slightly, quickly replacing that gun with another water pistol and putting both of hers in my bag.

"I didn't see her before Loki went to Stuttgart," said Agent Barton.

" Guys, we're going to have to fight off an alien army if we don't figure something out," said the spy as I moved behind Iron Man.

"Nick and Coulson are looking into it," said Stark. I tapped my wand on several spots on his armor. "There's no sign of her on the Helicarrier's security footage until Loki got out of the cell, though. She just popped up out of nowhere."

"And the footage we did get isn't of her face."

I stepped back to the front of the bar, leaning against the counter to watch the Avengers, waiting to start the next part of my plan.

"Maybe you should contact Fury," Agent Romanoff addressed Stark. "See if there is anything they've found on the girl. Or if Dr. Selvig's come up with anything to disarm the Cube."

"Sure thing. JARVIS, call Fury… JARVIS?"

"What is the matter?"

"JARVIS isn't responding," I could see Stark try to move, but he only managed to shift a little in his suit, the armor stuck in place. Fear widened his eyes. "What the—?"

 _Now._

"Hey everybody," I called. "I'm so glad y'all could make it."

They all looked around to find where my voice was coming from.

"Who goes there? Reveal yourself!" Thor said. He might have been threatening if he hadn't gotten twisted up in his cape and fallen over. His hammer skidded across the floor past the bar. Taking the opportunity, I put up a barrier spell in front of it. I wasn't sure it would do anything to stop the hammer when Thor summoned it, but I figured I might as well try.

"Woah, sorry. Didn't mean to startle you."

"If you mean us no harm, why do you not show yourself then?" said the god.

"I'll give you three guesses, Thunder. The first two don't count, though."

"You took my guns?" Agent Romanoff asked, looking down at the water pistols she had grabbed out of her holsters.

"I'm not here to fight, so I had to disarm you all first."

"No, I meant… _how_?"

"More importantly, WHAT did you do to my suit?!"

"Don't worry," I looked outside to see Loki waiting with the scepter behind the Tesseract, doubled over laughing at what was going on in here. "Your suit is fixa—"

"My… my arrows!" I turned to see Agent Barton with a look of shock and horror on his face as he stared at the empty quiver in his arms.

"Clint, get a grip," Agent Romanoff hissed.

"But—"

" _Clint_."

"Um… So, as I was saying," I continued. "All of your belongings will be returned to you when this is over, just as you had them."

"You," Thor said, finally struggling back to his feet. "You are the girl who escaped with my brother, aren't you?"

"You could say that," I replied.

"Did Loki force you to help him?" Agent Barton spoke up.

"No. He actually didn't really want my help at first. I had to, uh, convince him."

"So if you weren't being controlled, why are you helping him?" he asked.

"Well, there's that whole alien-army-that's-headed-for-Earth thing that I'd like to avoid. Plus I've gotten to know Loki a bit. This mess isn't entirely his fault."

"Yeah, well, I don't know if you've noticed, sweetheart," Stark piped up. "But Loki happens to be a compulsive liar."

"I thought you might say something like that. Which is why you're all here, weaponless. I promised him I'll do what I can to help him prove his innocence to you all. I trust he will go through with his end of our agreement, but I have certain precautions in place just incase he doesn't."

"What sort of precautions?" asked Agent Romanoff.

"You let me worry about that," I said.

"What has Loki agreed to do to prove his innocence?" Asked Thor.

"Simple. He's going to shut down the Tesseract ."

"... Please tell me he doesn't have the scepter," the spy said.

"Well, yeah. But look, he's right outside," I turned and waved at Loki, who was now completely visible, who gave me a cheery wave back. I gave him a thumbs up, to which he nodded in return and turned to the Tesseract, lifting the scepter to its barrier.

The two agents rushed to the door, tugging on the handle.

"That's not gonna open," I said.

Thor stuck out his hand to summon his hammer, but it crashed against the magical barrier I had put up, straining against it but unable to get past. We all looked up at it in surprise, Loki and myself included. I hadn't thought my magic would be able to stop the hammer of Thor itself.

"Hey, uh, guys," Stark said. "This is just a wild guess here, but I think the kid might have some powers."

"Please, can you all just stay calm for a minute? I came here to help Loki," I looked at the god, who was looking back at me with shock. "Keep going," I mouthed. He hesitated this time before he nodded again, going back to disabling the Tesseract.

Agent Barton finally stopped trying to pry the door open and looked up at Loki, who was focused on piercing the Tesseract's protective barrier with the scepter. "Wait, is he? He's actually doing it. He's stopping the portal from opening."

"Well that _is_ what I just said I brought him here to do," I walked over to where Thor and Stark were stuck. "I'm sorry I had to trap you all like this, but like I said, I don't want a fight."

"That's great, kid," said Stark. "Very honorable. But my nose is starting to itch."

"I'll fix your armour if you take it off right away."

"Oh, you want me to take it off, do you?" Stark waggled his eyebrows. The rest of the Avengers collectively groaned.

"Yeeaaahh… on second thought, maybe I'll just leave you there."

"Wait wait wait! Okay, I'm sorry, just fix my suit. And bring JARVIS back."

"Okay, since you put it so nicely."

"You actually trust any of us to go through with a promise we make you?" Agent Romanoff asked.

"I would certainly hope so," I said, tapping Stark's armour with my wand to remove the jinxes I had placed on it. "You all call yourselves the heroes, after all. From what I've heard there's a code of honor of some kind that comes with that title." As I finished I stepped back, his armour opening up to allow him to step out of it.

"JARVIS?" he called. "You back in business?"

"Yes sir," replied a disembodied male voice with an English accent. "Captain Rogers and Dr. Banner attempted to contact you a moment ago."

"What did you tell them?"

"I informed them that I was unable to contact you and so they—"

There was the sound of the elevator doors sliding open behind me, a chorus of "no!," air whistling, a sudden pain in my back, and then nothing at all.


	7. Memories

***LOKI POV***

There was a flash of light, and then it was done. I withdrew the scepter from the Tesseract, feeling something akin to relief. I knew I would likely have to someday face the Chitauri once again to pay for my treason, but for now I had Alex and all was well.

I turned to the Tower window and my relief turned to unease as I saw, not Alex beyond the glass, but instead only Thor and the rest of the heroes. I discarded the scepter on the platform and strode to the door. I undid the locking spell Alex had put upon it and entered into the room.

"I was aiming for Loki, Stark," I heard the soldier say, none of them noticing I was there. "How was I supposed to know she was even there?"

"Neither of you are helping," the thief interrupted. "Banner? Anything?"

"No… No, there's nothing I can do," I heard the monster say, though I could not see him. "Nothing anyone can do."

The group shifted, and cold dread washed over me as I saw him. He was examining a figure who was sprawled upon the floor, a bright blue sack and the soldier's shield strewn nearby, crimson stains smeared on both.

"No. No no, what have you—ALEX!" I rushed to her, shoving the heroes aside. I kneeled before her, brushing her hair aside, her face ashen.

"Alex?" I called, rubbing her shoulder. "Alex, speak to me. No… No, Alex… _Please._ " I gripped her arm, shaking her this time, yet she still would not wake. I attempted to revive her with healing spells, but she did not stir. It was then that I realized that I was kneeling in a pool of blood that was seeping out from under her.

I looked to the beast across from me, "What is this? What happened?"

He regarded me with a wary look before replying, "Cap tried to hit you with his shield but he accidently hit her instead." He gestured to Alex. "She was invisible until then."

"Surely there must be something that can be done." My chest felt tight.

"The shield hit her in the middle of her back," he said in a cautious tone. "It cut clean through her spine."

I eased her onto her front, careful to keep her out of the blood. Her tunic was torn and drenched. I grabbed the hem and peeled it up, revealing a gaping wound across her back. I recoiled, feeling ill.

"No… No that… That can't be…"

"Brother," I heard Thor say, though his voice seemed hollow and distant.

"Brother, please." Thor put a hand on my shoulder, his voice clear. "She's gone."

"Get off me!" I shoved him away from me, rising to face the soldier. "What have you done?"

"That's what I'd like to know." Came a voice from behind me. I turned to see a man whom I did not recognize looking down at Alex. "Who did this?"

"Who wants to know?" the metallurgist countered, he and the others raising their weapons at the stranger.

"I'm her father, you imbecile."

"Then surely you can bring her back," I said.

The stranger looked at me for the first time. "You're Loki."

"And what of it?" I snapped, agitated by his lack of concern. "You claim you are her father. Are you not skilled in magic?

"No," he replied, his expression softening. "I can do some healing, but she's beyond that help now."

"There must be something that can be done."

"Do you really care about her?" her father queried.

"Yes," I frowned. "I am not even certain as to precisely why. Or how, for that matter. But I do. Of that I am certain."

"Good. Then I want you to rescue her."

"What do you mean?"

"It's your choice, of course. I'd do it myself, but that would be going against the Fates."

"Whatever it takes, I shall do it."

"I'm going to send you to the Underworld to bring back her spirit," he pulled out three leafs of paper and a pen from the pouch on his hip, walking over to the counter and scribbling on each leaf.

"Loki's not going anywhere without one of us," the soldier interrupted. "He's killed a few dozen people in the last two days, stolen private government property, and attempted to start a war with the people of Earth. So if you think—"

"I think you just killed my daughter with your glorified Frisbee, _Captain._ I will do what I damn well please," his features hardened as he spoke. He folded the papers, sealing them with wax, and turned back to me.

"Alex trusts you, so I'm putting my trust in you as well. My daughter tends to be very forgiving of others, Loki. If you don't bring her back to me, I can't promise I will be as forgiving."

I nodded. "Of course."

"Then let's go," he said. I took one last glance at Alex, noticing her wand had fallen out of her grasp. I bent, snatching it up and tucking it into my coat, before turning back to the man. He grasped my arm, and then I was hurtling through darkness for the second time in my life.


	8. Mortal

***ALEX POV***

I awoke laying on a couch, the murmur of a small crowd around me. I opened my eyes, raising my hand against the bright light coming in from a window next to me.

"Oh good. You're awake," droned a voice from beside me. "Took you long enough."

I lowered my hand, blinking as my eyes adjusted. A man in an Italian suit stood over me. "Who are you?"

"Charon," he enunciated, clicking his nail on his name tag.

"Where am I?" I asked, sitting up. I was in what looked like a lobby.

"The waiting room of the Underworld," he spread his arms in a grand gesture. "Otherwise known to the living as DOA Records."

"Why?" I looked around, trying to remember how I ended up here. The last thing I could remember was being at Camp Half-Blood, trying to get the Apollo and Athena kids to stop bickering. Again.

He let out a soft sigh. "For a child of Hermes, you're not very swift, are you? I normally don't initiate conversation with the recently departed, but I have special instructions from your father."

"Recently departed? What are you talking about?" I reached for my wand, but my pocket was empty. "Where is my wand? And why am I wearing dirty cargo pants?"

"Well, what I'm talking about is the fact that you're dead. And if you didn't have it with you when you died, then you're not bringing it with you into the afterlife. As for the pants, my best guess is that you have terrible style."

"Is this a joke?" I asked. "This is some kind of joke, isn't it?"

"Most spirits who died abruptly have a difficult time coming to terms with their demise," he said, more to himself than me.

"Okay," I stood, walking to the door. "This has been fun. Really. I don't know how much the Stoll brothers paid you to do this, but I hope it was worth it. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be going." I turned to the front door, shoving it open. Well, I _would_ have shoved it open, if my arm didn't go right through the door. I yanked my hand back, clutching it to my chest.

"What the— What was that?" I looked at Charon, my voice a few octaves higher than normal.

"The dead can't open doors," Charon said. "I thought I made it perfectly clear that you are in that category now."

"But I can Swayze my way through them?" My voice lowering to its normal pitch.

"Yes, but you couldn't come back here on your own. And while I'd love to be rid of you, I was given special instructions to make sure you made it through the gates of the Underworld. So the only way for you is forward." He started walking to the elevator.

"Wait!" I hurried to catch up with him, "Who gave you special instructions?"

"Your father," he said, pressing the down button. "But your father told me that it is imperative that you move on immediately."

"Hermes?"

"He is your father, yes?" The doors opened and he stepped in, turning back to me.

"Yeah, but I mean, why?"

"That's not really my concern. Though he did say something about you being important for something or other that he has planned. Are you coming?"

"I don't like this…" I muttered, stepping in.

I was outside the throne room of Hades and Persephone. Charon had ferried me down the River Styx to the gates of the Underworld. He left me with two envelopes and told me to give one to the Judges and the other to Hades. The Judges had seemed puzzled after looking over their letter, but they said nothing, pointing to me to the palace of Hades.

So here I was, trying not to bolt out of the palace to find a way out of the Underworld. I sat on the black marble floor instead, picking at the dried lumps of mud and weeds on my pants, willing myself to remember how I had died. At least I felt more substantial down here than I had in the lobby upstairs.

I jumped as the doors in front of me swung open, revealing the room, and the god, within. "Enter," called Hades.

"Hello, sir," I said, stopping several feet from the thrones. "I'm sorry I'm such a mess."

"I've seen far worse," he assured. "Charon sent word that you would be coming. He said that you had something for me."

"Yeah—yes." I stepped forward to hand him the second envelope.

He read over the letter for a while before addressing me. "It seems your father wants you alive. He says someone will be coming here shortly to retrieve you."

"Really?" I frowned. "That's what that letter says?"

He raised an eyebrow, reaching for the paper, "If you don't believe my sincerity, you're welcome to read the letter for yourself."

"No! I mean, I think you're telling me the truth. I just don't understand why it's true. Does he say why?"

"Not in detail. He says he cannot explain much, but that you have an important role in a plan of his."

"I don't know anything about any of his plans. I'm not even sure how I got here."

"Ceasing to be alive is how people usually get here." I couldn't tell if that was supposed to be a joke.

"I mean I can't remember how I died."

"Ah. You're one of those," Hades said, leaning back in his throne.

"One of what?"

"Souls who don't remember their demise are somewhat rare here. Most choose to leave the lobby upstairs rather than let Charon ferry them here."

"Oh. Yeah, Charon told me about what would happen if I left. Didn't sound too appealing."

"I'm glad. What is the last thing you remember of your life?"

"I was at camp. I had settled an argument, and then I… I think Chiron had wanted to talk to me about something."

"Do you recall what it was he wanted to speak about?" He urged.

Fragments of a memory flashed in my mind. "I kinda remember—"

"Alex?" a voice behind me called. I turned to see a man standing in the doorway, his dark clothing and even darker hair creating a chameleon effect against the marble of the throne room. "Are you alright? I came as quickly as I could manage."

"I might have been" I huffed as the memory faded away. "If you didn't have the worst timing."

"It was never my intention for you to end up… here. I had no idea that 'hero' would be so reckless."

"Why are you worried about me?" I was getting a little weirded out by this guy. "Who are you?"

"Alex, what are you doing? You know me." He frowned, moving closer. I backed up, tripping on the base of Hades' throne, sitting down hard on the dark stone. I was surprised to feel pain spark across the middle of my back. Could the dead feel pain?

"Kindly refrain from startling my subjects," Hades said. "You are the one sent to bring Alex's soul back?"

"Yes," the stranger turned away from me, somewhat reluctantly, to acknowledge the god for the first time. "Her father sent me. He said you owe him a favor."

"That is true. However, I do not make a habit of simply letting souls return to the mortal world without a price."

"What sort of price?"

"Alex has no memory of approximately the past twelve hours. Including you. So my price is this: if you can succeed in getting Alex to recall how she died, then you may both return to the mortal world."

"And how do I know it was not you who did this to her? Perhaps your plan is to manipulate her into staying here."

"Because it is not my place to alter the memories of anyone, dead or otherwise, for any reason. You may accept my offer, or you may leave. The choice is yours."

"Do I get a choice in this?" I piped up from my spot on the floor.

Hades looked down at me. "The Judges informed me that you would be sent to Elysium, should you stay. You'll be happy here, I'm sure. But no, you do not get a choice in the matter, I am afraid."

"Your price," said the man. "What are the terms?"

"Alex is free to ask you whatever she wishes, except for your name and precisely how she died. However, you may only answer her questions, do not add anything unwarranted."

"I accept."

"Okay, uh…" I stood, facing the stranger. "I don't remember you, so I'm assuming we met sometime in the past twelve hours?"

"Correct."

"Alright. Where did we meet, then?"

"A cliff. We were close to Stuttgart, if I'm not mistaken."

"What? Why was I on a cliff in Germany?"

"You've yet to tell me, actually."

"Okay then… Was my death an accident?"

"Supposedly." He scowled.

Feeling a little bolder, I stepped up to him to see him better. He seemed calm, but I thought I could see fear in his eyes. It was hard to tell in the dim light.

"Prove that you know me."

"You can only ask him questions," Hades reminded.

"Fine," I said. "Can you prove that you know me?"

The man thought for a moment, before reaching into his coat. "Well, this belongs to you." He pulled out short rod, holding it out to me.

I peered at the object, gasping when I realized what I was seeing. "Is that—That's my wand! How do you have my wand?"

"You had dropped it when you were… when you passed. I was planning on giving this back to you when we returned to Midgard."

"Well give it back to me now, Loki!" I tried to grab it from him, my hand passing right through his—and my wand. My shoulders sagged. Apparently I wasn't as substantial down here as I had thought. I walked away from him, sitting on the floor by the wall.

"I'm never going home, am I?" I mumbled to no one in particular.

"What did you just say?" he asked, sitting near me.

"That I'm never getting out of here. No offense, but I'm not remembering anything."

"No, what did you say before that."

"I told you to give me my wand back…" I looked up at him. "Loki?"


End file.
